"You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise."
- Maya Angelou
22nd June 1998
Prologue
Ophelia Burke was afraid.
Not because she was faced with the possibility of suffering a fate worse than death. No, after the siege at Hogwarts that resulted in the death of her master, she knew that the Ministry would come for her.
She was afraid of being forgotten.
Ophelia didn't care about justice. She was a Burke, part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the law didn't apply to her. Her grandfather Caractacus would constantly drill that into her head. He may have been a con man but he was more of a father to her then her own father. All she cared about was that everything she had done over the last forty years will have been for naught.
Kingsley Shacklebolt cleared his throat, trying to bring order to the gossiping hordes that flooded the chamber but to no avail. With a sigh, Kingsley pointed his wand to his throat and cast an amplifying charm.
"I will have order." Kingsley said, emitting such a calming aura that the rest of the Wizengamot instantly silenced themselves. "Thank you. Now onto more pressing matters at hand."
Carnivorous eyes focused on the elderly women in the centre of the courtroom, she carried herself with a high degree of dignity that commandeered the attention of the Wizengamot.
"Let the records show that the trial of Ophelia Elizabeth Burke, residency unknown, has now reached its conclusion. Interrogators: Kingsley Shacklebolt, acting Minister for Magic and Gawain Robards, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Ms. Burke, you stand here on the twenty-second of June and your crimes too numerous to list but include aiding and abetting the Dark Lord and most notably, the murder of Igor Karkaroff. I believe the court has done everything in its power to prove your accountability for the aforementioned crimes. But to ensure that justice has truly been served, what do you have to say for yourself?"
For the first time since the start of her trail, Ophelia Burke unashamedly looked up from her lap and acknowledged the people surrounding her. A small smile that took years off of her face formed upon her stern lips, heavily lidded hazel eyes revealed the merriment she took from the looks of disgust she was subjected to.
Knowing that this would be the last time Ophelia would be in this court as a free woman, it seemed almost foolish that her only wish was if only her late mother could see her now.
Crystal tears pooled at the bottom of her dark lashes but not from regret. The only regret she had was that she was still alive in this realm but the Dark Lord wasn't. Without him, Ophelia had very little reason to exist in this mortal plain. In a temporary moment of clarity, she realised the irony of her birth name and how apt it was in the given moment.
The entire trial was a sham from the start, Kingsley Shacklebolt needed a scapegoat to prove to the wizarding world that he was a capable of eradicating the corrupt old ways. And who better to start with than her, a pure-blood supremacist that was known to have been associated with the Dark Lord since their time together as students in Hogwarts. It was a miracle Ophelia had evaded capture for over forty years, but it only stood as a testament to her great skill.
"…You might as well just send me to the Dementers." Ophelia croaked, her throat hoarse from the relentless chill of the cells.
Once upon a time, Ophelia would have felt some type of remorse but she was no longer the same naïve teenager that believed in equality. Dumbledore made sure of that the day he stripped all the happiness out of her life.
"The Dark Lord may be gone but somebody else will take his place. After all," Ophelia crossed her legs and laughed bitterly. "The strong lead and the weak bleed, that's the way the world has always worked. You're a fool Shacklebolt, trying to maintain this so-called illusion of 'peace' but in reality you're just one man. People will always cling to the old ways; your family certainly did!"
A shockwave of horror burst forth from the jury, the sound echoed off the walls forcing the Chief Warlock to quieten the room with a small charm.
"Order, order! I will not ask anyone again; you will be thrown out of the courtroom." Gawain roared, redirecting attention to the issues at hand. "I gather by your testimony Ms, Burke that you show no signs of repentance for your actions against wizard and mugglekind. Regardless of your beliefs, at no point were your actions noble or justified. In fact, the Ministry gauges your true body count to be higher than the number on our records and it is with great misfortune that some families out there will never receive the closure they're seeking because we are unable to prove it-"
Kingsley placed a hand on Gawain's shoulder to rein the older man in, "That's enough."
Pure disgust filled Gawain's eyes and admittedly he should have recused himself from this case from the very beginning. Burke had murdered his wife in cold blood in retaliation for sending her brother to Azkaban. However as one of the oldest living Aurors, he was a favourable candidate. Plus, the exposure from this case alone would make him prime contender for Head of Magical Law Enforcement after Harry Potter was the front runner for Head of Aurors.
"You can't allow your own feelings to cloud your judgment," Kingsley murmured to prevent the others from hearing.
Gawain grit his teeth before nodding, he would get his revenge.
"Ophelia Elizabeth Burke. On the charges of first degree murder, the unlawful usage of the three Unforgivable Curses, treason..."
Ophelia closed her eyes and imagined herself in another time, another place, anywhere that was far away from this stand. True, all of the stories about her were correct in one way or another but they never publicized the real reason Ophelia allied herself with the Dark Lord in the first place. Otherwise it would have been a declaration on the failings of the school system.
"Therefore, I believe that we have no choice but to sentence you to the maximum allowed tariff in Azkaban…"
By the time her sentence was passed, Ophelia Burke was no longer in the dreary London courtroom. She was eleven again standing on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, filled with unbridled happiness. As Ophelia was roughly pulled to her feet by the Auror guards, she could only reminisce about how the events of her youth had sealed her fate. Before the world had known him as Voldemort, she only knew him as Tom Riddle, the only wizard that was capable of changing a chaotic world and bring order to it.
Author's Notes: Wow I can't believe I've been gone from this site for 3 years O_O
I'd like to credit my beta reader amortentia1992 for looking over this. I plan on updating this story once a week, I already have Chapter 1 ready to publish and Chapter 2 is in the process of being written.
Thank you to old readers and new readers who have chosen to click on this story that I've been planning to write for a couple years. I was interested in exploring Tom Riddle's character since it was who he was before he became Voldemort and I wanted to explore the experiences that made him into who he grew up to become.
This story will feature a characters whose names were mentioned in the series but their characters weren't expanded on, including the original Death Eaters and Alphard Black, just to name a couple. However, there are still quite a few roles in the story that I need to fill and there aren't many Hogwarts student's canon characters during Tom Riddle's time that weren't in Slytherin.
Here are the gaps:
Professors for Divination, Charms, Astronomy and Ancient Runes
3 Gryffindor students that highlight the negative attributes of that house and 1 that highlights the positives.
Ravenclaw students- 3 girls, 2 guys
Hufflepuff students
OC Form:
Name:
Age: (only applicable if professor)
Gender:
House:
Blood status: (No pureblood students, pureblood professors are fine)
Appearance:
Personality:
Skills: (areas of magic they are skilled in)
Feel free to submit a character via PM, (I can't accept any submitted in reviews) and leave me a review if you have a comment x